The U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan’s confidential and secret cables, released publicly by WikiLeaks, are about as blunt as they get in describing the grand-scale corruption under Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the Central Asian nation like a sultan since Soviet times.
“Corruption is endemic among Kazakhstani officialdom, as it is across the [Commonwealth of Independent States],” wrote U.S.Ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard E. Hoagland in a cable on April 22, 2009. “Most senior officials live lifestyles that require much higher incomes. In many instances, they receive profits from businesses registered in the names of their spouses or other relatives. In other case, they’re stealing directly from the public trough.”
In a secret cable dated Jan. 25 of this year, Hoagland outlined a dinner he had which illuminated how Nazarbayev runs Kazakhstan with a close circle of relatives and friends who lead ostentatiously lavish lifestyles. Hoagland had a private dinner on Jan. 21 with Maksat Idenov, Kazakh gas oligarch and Nazarbayev`s close ally.
Idenov described the political realities of Kazakhstan. According to Idenov, the top four people around Nazarbayev are presidential administration chief Sarybai Kalmurzayev, presidential chief of staff Aslan Musin, Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev and “the tandem” of Prime Minister Karim Masimov and the president’s son-in-law, billionaire Timur Kulibayev.
These officials are described as longtime friends of Nazarbayev while his son-in law made Forbes 500 list of billionaires and is “the ultimate controller of 90 percent of the economy of Kazakhstan.” If true, that would make Kazakhstan’s economy a family monopoly, not merely an oligarchy.
The ambassador also described the colossal scale of alleged theft, including charges that fugitive former banker Mukhtar Ablyazov embezzled more than $1 billion, while Ablyazov in turn accused Kulibayev of accepting more than $100 million in bribes in oil deals with China.
Idenov complained to the ambassador that “the big four” blocked him from seeing Nazarbayev for months. Asked by the U.S. representative whether corruption has gotten worse in Kazakhstan, Idenov said that nothing has changed and “it’s business as usual.”
But then he said America doesn’t compare so favorably.
“Capitalism – you call it market economy – means huge money. Listen, almost everyone at the top is confused. They are confused by their Soviet mentality. They are confused by the corrupt excesses of capitalism. ‘If Goldman Sachs executives can make $50 million a year and then run America’s economy in Washington, what’s so different about what we do, they ask,” Idenov reportedly told Hoagland at their dinner.
Another cable from the U.S. Embassy in Astana, the capital of the nation of 16 million people, was classified by politica/economic chief Steven Fagin. Dated April 17, 2008, it reveals lavish lifestyle of countries` elite. It describes a Nazarbayev-owned mansion in Antaliya, Turkey as well as a horse farm “surrounded by a high fence and security guards”.
One of the president’s daughters, Dinara Nazarbayeva, reportedly hired pop star Nelly Furtado to perform at her birthday party. Her husband, Tumir Kulibayev, celebrated his 41st birthday with Russia`s biggest pop stars and Elton John as the headliner, a performance that cost him one $1.5 million.
Moreover, a Turkish official told the ambassador that Kulibayev bought up a number of luxury villas in Budrum, Turkey, at a cost of $4 million to $5 million each “and doled them out as gifts to friends and family,” the cable reveals.
All the cables from Kazakhstan released so far by WikiLeaks can be read here.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
